Steph'a'scope

Fun with Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:13:00 +0000

Hello there! I've been experimenting with photography and got some fun shots this month:

I also did a last minute photoshoot of my niece (below):

I need to edit out whatever that is in the bottom corner there, just ignore it for now :-)

That's all for now :-)

Photoshoot

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:04:00 +0000

Here is a sample of some finished photos from my first newborn photoshoot. I'm still a ridiculously new learner as far as Photoshop goes, so I'm hoping these look good ;-) If they are a little extra grainy it's because I read about, but did not practice, or remember, the technique for saving a photo for the web in Photoshop. Still, I'm happy with the results!

I couldn't decide which edit I liked better of this momma shot, what do you think?

It was really fun to do this shoot, and I'm excited with how the shots turned out. Can't wait to do more shoots this summer! I plan to make a separate blog for just my photography, so I will post the info for that when it's done. I already have one on Wordpress, but it's more complicated to run than Blogger. I'm thinking of offering to do photoshoots for free or for a donation with anyone interested this summer. I just love getting the knowledge and experience under my belt. I think I want to do this professionally, but not for a few more years. I have a lot more to learn, and more equipment (woohoo) to acquire :-)

March Recap

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:54:00 +0000

Where does the time go? It's April already?

Well this is a March recap.

At the beginning of the month we made a trip to Anchorage for Spring Break. On the return part of the trip we saw these Caribou:

It was my first time seeing Caribou in Alaska. I've only seen them, previously, while driving through Canada!

We had a St. Patrick's Day party at the in-law's

For the record, the hubby told me to make that face for the picture....

I wanted to practice frosting stuff, so I made the cupcakes and decorated them:

These two wanted to pose for a lot of pictures, so I took a few:

aahhh, don't kiss me, bleck!

I did a photoshoot for a friend. It was my first newborn photoshoot. I'll post some pics of that later. But while setting up for it, baby 3 jumped into the props and began posing. She's so cute!

Here is my final project cake for my first cake class, thanks goes to my sis-in-law for helping me think of a design for it:

It wasn't actually anyone's anniversary, but writing Happy Birthday seemed so boring.

And I've gotten to have my sis-in-law over a lot of weekends this month, usually to help her for a Saturday date with her beau. They had a formal army ball to go to so I helped her with her hair:

And then some photos :-)

G-boy lost a front tooth. I thought he had already lost those.....

The tooth ~~fairy~~ bear brought him a $5 bill. He thought it was just a paper dollar. Apparently we need to continue our money learning.

Also there is a war going on between the tooth fairy and the tooth bear. Apparently fairies are too, well "fairy", so in my hubby's family there is a tooth bear, and he brings more money than that silly fairy.....

I still let her come though :-)

Guns, Cakes, Kids & Church

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:06:00 +0000

Friday night was the tournament night for the shooting league I joined recently. I did so good!!! (Compared to how I've been doing all along anyway :-) I was in division B, which is next to the top, I only expected to be in a lower division. Then I took 3rd place in my division, by ONE point!!!!! That was agonizing! In shooting, if you tie, then whoever had more X's (bullseyes) breaks the tie. I had him on X's, 6 to 5. If only I hadn't missed that ONE shot, I'd have passed him in points.....oh well. It was super fun, I've already signed up for the next league and hope to keep improving. I shot enough qulifying scores to reach the Pro-Marksman level, woot woot.

Also, I have started cake decorating classes at Jo-Ann's. Here's my latest practice:

The icing got too warm, since I let it sit out over night.....so next time, if the icing is stiffer it will make prettier flowers.

On a child-related note, the other day G-boy asked me, "Mom, did Dad choose you to get married to?" I was like, "Yes, of course! And I said Yes" ;-) G-boy then said, "because he gave you a big ring?" "Yes, I married Dad because he gave me a big ring" lol.

And lastly, my calling at church is with Activity Day girls right now, we had fun doing this on Wednesday:

Dare I Hope?

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 07:00:00 +0000

The above photo is a significant view. One that I only get to see a few months of the year. The sun shining in my window. It was so bright and warm. I had to document it, no matter how silly. Dare I hope that Spring is coming soon? It was "warming up" for awhile (15 above, ha). Then yesterday it dipped to -11, but the sun does that sometimes because it takes away the insulating cloud cover. So, I am going to hope. Spring has to come at some point anyway. Besides the sun feels sooo good.

Averie had her third belt test in Tang Soo Do today. This is her receiving her new belt. Both Gideon and Averie started Karate in August. Averie is a Tiny Tiger, so they have a few more "tests" than the older kids to help them feel like they are progressing I think. Gideon has not had a test yet but it's coming soon. His teacher can be scary on test days, so I'm nervous for him. They work really hard, but they have to get it perfect. Gideon is really coordinated though. He really really enjoys karate and is often picked to be the example to the rest of the class of how to do things correctly. Whew! This momma couldn't take it if he were one of the ones being yelled at and crying every day.....

These pics of Hallie are just showing a technique I read about forever ago but finally got to try today. Notice the shadow on her face on top, and the improvement on bottom? You just use something solid and white, i.e. foam board to bounce the light from a window or light source onto the shadowy side of your subject. I used something similar to foam board used by a sign company in town for making signs for businesses. It was neat to see the subtle, yet difference-making change it can give your photos.

Can I show off a little?

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 04:42:00 +0000

This is what we made for family members for Christmas:

(Please excuse the yellowness, oops)

I've been wanting to make plaques of some kind for a long time, so I was so glad when the hubby said he would help me. We cut the borders of the wood ourselves, primered, painted, cut vinyl letters on my Cricut, then painted over all of it with a clear coat. We made 5 in total, whew!

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 04:00:00 +0000

I am not good at keeping people updated because I feel like I am so busy all the time, but then I cant remember what I was doing that made me so busy.

For one thing, we are just trying to keep the homeschooling going strong. I think I am finally finding my comfort zone with it, and I have found some awesome resources. (And then there are those days that Charter schools are looking really good......I can always threaten I guess)

Tim is school until 7pm every weeknight this semesterl except Thursdays, then he's in class until 9. So I just keep busy.

I have been trying my hand at shooting in a .22 gun league, and am actually really enjoying it. I am not an ace at it yet, but not bad, I think I will keep doing it when finances permit...

Otherwise we have spent a lot of time at doctors offices. First because the kids were all sick so we put them on antibiotics for about 4 different things between them. Thats all under control now, just have to remember to give them their vitamin D and fiber supplements every day and hopefully they will stop getting sick! I swear I never got sick as often as my kids do, what gives?

The doctors have also been trying to figure out why my feet and legs have been hurting since October. They said it was tendonitis, but they were lying just so I could go to physical therapy and be approved to go for my insurance, have to have a diagnosis..... then they thought I may have a herniated disc in my back causing refer pain in my legs. But I had an appointment today and I don't fit the bill for signs of a herniated disc, sigh..... At least then I would have been able to get it fixed.

So that's us, I'm excited for spring to get here. I started a bunch of seedlings really early this year, since last year my flowers didn't bloom in time. But I overwatered a lot of them this year, so I hope I still have time to re-plant some more flowers.

Also, I found a really neat website that emails you and tells you what you should plant that week according to where you live and your climate etc...it's really cool. http://www.sproutrobot.com

If you have been on Pinterest you may have seen it, and if you're not on Pinterest...you should be.....

;-)

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:19:00 +0000

Wow, so I haven't blogged in a long time. I barely found where to add a new post since Blogger has changed a little since my last visit.
I like the way my blog looks though....lol Didn't even remember the last changes I made to it.

For now, I just wanted to say that I am adding some resources to the Education link at the top of the blog. I have found some awesome sites thanks to Pinterest. If you don't use Pinterest, you're missing out, really you are.

I will try to post more with a better update of us when I get a chance....no promises though ;-)

TGIJ!

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:03:00 +0000

Thank Goodness I Journal!
I don't even remember things that happened a month ago except I see them here on my blog! Being a mom means donating your brain to your children I think.....

We've been busy.
Averie had her 4th birthday. We were going to just have a party 2 days after her birthday, but Tim wanted to make her real birthday special too, and I am really glad he did. We had a lot of fun just planning and being together.

Home party.

Balloon fights!

Human jungle gym

Everyone got "shades" & ring pops.

Here is Tim's present for Father's Day:

Kind of cheesy, but each food item had a quote. My favorite was the apple: "Thanks for being the 'core' of our family".

I ordered this print from Iloveitall on etsy. I know the card is blocking part of it, but you can tell what it says.

And, very sadly, a friend of ours, Michael Murray, passed away June 4th from an accident at work. We've been trying to be there for his wife and we went to his funeral services Friday night. He was an awesome guy, wonderful father and husband. We were in total shock and still can't believe he's really gone. It's so sad to think of the family he's leaving behind, and scary to think sometimes that it can happen to any of us. I'm so grateful for the gospel and that I know Heavenly Father's plan for us. Michael's wife has been very blessed to be surrounded by family and church friends and we'll all continue to try and take care of her every day and keep her smiling. She is pretty awesome though and is taking everything a lot better than most.

We just love their kids (they actually have 3, the older one is just missing from the photo) and on a somewhat lighter note, Mike's wife and kids wrote messages on balloons and sent them up to him on Fathers Day, I thought that was such a sweet idea.

So it's been a busy month already. Gideon rode a bike without training wheels for the first time this week, Averie turned 4, Hallie is 9 months now and had her first "beach" excursion at the lake this weekend ( I forgot my camera though). Tim's in summer school, and I keep busy with everything that a mom's life entails. Yea for summer! (Anyone else notice your house messes double in the summer?)

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Sun, 29 May 2011 05:27:00 +0000

I haven't blogged in awhile, haven't studied photography in awhile either. I just haven't been not tired in awhile....And with summer here, I'm not sure if it's better, or worse because the constant sunshine keeps us going and going, but at least it's a more enjoyable kind of tired...I suppose.

Have I mentioned that Tim is no longer pursuing medical school? (And I worked so hard on my blog to match the idea of medical school too...) I am really relieved actually. I was worried about being a "single mom" for however many years it would've taken him to pursue whatever specialty, and we would be away from family on top of it.
Long story short, he switched to Electrical Engineering, which is what he wanted from the beginning, but I talked him out of it because I was mean and naieve but we won't go there...And, no offense to anyone out there, but he hates Biology. Well not Biology itself, maybe just the Biology department at this school. They changed the name of 2 classes he had previously taken, after he had taken them, so they no longer count as credit for his pre-med requirements and he'd have to take them again which would add 2 more years to his schooling.......grrrrrr........not to mention science is tough for him, try as he might he can't pull great grades in the sciences. On the other hand he's all A's in classes like Physics and Calculus and stuff I avoid like the plague! So we did the math (lol) and the field he's always wanted, is the one he's good at naturally. Kinda makes sense right? Yea, so 2 more years and we should be done! Then it's on to China! Just kidding, but seriously they're hiring there for electrical engineers, same with Brazil, Canada and the United Arab Emirates (no thanks)......

Here are some recent photos of us enjoying the warmth that is finally here, and guess what? My baby girl is 8 months now and sitting up all by herself, sigh.....

This last picture I'm just really happy about.

When we were married we wanted a photo of our hands together, but the photographer messed up and we weren't able to get one. But the other day I was printing a photo from our wedding to frame and noticed our hands in the shot above, so I zoomed in and cropped it and put it in this frame. The wording is a decal I bought from Groopdealz. Now I get to see this in my bedroom every day and smile. :-)

Happy Easter!

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 05:51:00 +0000

These are just shots from the egg hunt we had at our apartments, we had a pretty good turn out of people! Maybe we'll do it again next year.

Happy Easter!

My 1st baby girl's 1st Haircut

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:10:00 +0000

Today I got brave and cut my first little girl's hair, for the first time! (Don't worry, I asked a professional hairdresser's opinion and tips first!)

I didn't want either of us to be too traumatized by the experience though, so really it was just a trim. The movie Tangled, about Rapunzel, has been good for my little girl not wanting a haircut, so at least she's never attempted it on her own, and I only had to deal with a little whining while it was being cut.

Getting ready

First lock cut

She complained the entire time...lol

It doesn't look like that much was cut, but it was about 2 inches.

Happy to be done! Forgot to trim her bangs though, I'll get her next time.

I was worried her hair wouldn't still curl if I cut it, but no worries :-)

Today is also the day the baby turns 7 months! How did that happen?

Here is my most recent photo of her, just a few days ago:

This shot was just for fun, love this lens!

Hospital Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 01:47:00 +0000

So Baby H started being sick 2 Sundays ago. I didn't think much of it, it just seemed like she was congested, and it was slightly worse through the night than it was during the day. But then she developed a slight fever, and 4 days later she wasn't any better despite Ibuprofen and Tylenol around the clock, and vicks and humidifiers at night. On my mom's advice, I decided to get her in to the doctor since the persistent fever meant there was likely an infection.

The doctor checked her over and said she was just going to send us home with some antibiotics for the ear infection she discovered. But first she checked baby's oxygen level, just to be safe. Sure enough, the numbers were too low, and nothing we did could trick the machine into giving a higher number, so off to the hospital we went.

She tested negative for the flu, RSV, no pneumonia in her xray (which by the way, looks like a pure torture device the way they have to brace her with her arms in the air since she's so little). In the end she basically had an infection in her lungs, aka bronchiolitis, and lots of mucus. So, as far as I understand, without enough oxygen her heart was having to work harder, and she couldn't really work on healing when she was working so hard on breathing. I think that was the gist of it. So her and I were stuck there for the next 5 days until she could get her oxy levels up enough, especially during sleep. They gave her breathing treatments every 4 hours and antibiotics twice a day, and kept her on oxygen.

During this time, I think she shared her sickness with me, thanks baby! At least I was in a place where I could rest already! My ears are still plugged though, it's quite annoying...

What?
Not you mom.
Oh, ok.

What?
Not you mom.
Oh, ok....

lol

She was looking really pathetic when we first got there, but I could see a real difference in her as she got better and better.

Poor baby

Her "prison" bed

We had the dolphin room...and I went to high school with the first nurse we had, lol

Her oxy sensor, she tried to get this light so many times

Second, maybe 3rd day in, thought she was better, so we took off the tube, but it went right back on her that night.

Thought it was funny when she'd swipe at her nose and pull the tube out, just enough to poke her on the outside of her nose.

Visitors!

They brought us this saucer and a baby swing after awhile.

Meanwhile, the older two kids were at Grandma's, having a great time, they didn't even miss us:

LOVE this shot!

Gettin Ready for Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:41:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

This post will only make sense to you if you are LDS. :-)

I like to find activity packets for the kids to do during General Conference. It's supposed to keep them occupied. But what ends up happening is they throw the packet somewhere, I pick it up, and I write my own notes from Conference all over it.
So I was happy that this time, on Sugardoodle, there is a packet for adults too :-).
Here is the link to Sugardoodle's packets, one for kids, one for youth, one for adults, yea!!

Also, I found the cutest CTR shield's through Sugardoodle. It's a neat blog called Simply Fresh Designs. I laminated some, and maybe I'll cheaply frame them and put them in the kid's rooms.
Enjoy!

FHE at the Ice Park

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:16:00 +0000

Yup, for FHE last week, we went to the Ice Park. Good thing too, since it was the last week to go.(Make sure you go to the website to see some cooler photos.)

We only paid half price for our adult tickets, thanks to the newspapers HotDeals coupon, and the kids were free. A family of 5 for $10? Sweet deal!

Car seat on a sled, traveling in style! (Where's MY sled ride?!)

Hello in there :-)

Top of the ice maze

Waiting at the "train station", actually an argo picks you up, and you can ride on the train cars behind it.

Midget eskimo

I love this shot and the next one!

Check out that little girl attitude! lol

I threatened him with his life if he hurt the baby...

Riding on a dog, I think.

Riding on the train, why didn't we do this before? We didn't have to freeze to death to tour all the sculptures!

This was one of the coolest sculptures this year, 2nd place I think. 1st place was so intricate, it had already completely melted and fallen over.

Wonder what they use for the color on the ice?

Old faithful. The phone booth is there every year.

I only posted a few of the sculptures that were there. We weren't that impressed by most of them this year. Maybe because we rode the train, so they all went by a lot faster than we're used to! lol

While we were there, a photographer for IceAlaska took photos of the G-man on some of the slides. She said we could find the photos later at the IceAlaska website, but I'm not seeing much of anything for photos over there....Let me know if you find it for me!

Also, the website says this may be the last year for the ice park. I doubt it, they're just having land rental issues, so hopefully they can just find a new location, or buy the land, but check it out at their website, just in case.

So, while most of you are enjoying the warmer weather, wherever you are, think of us, at the ice park, in Alaska.

Did I make anyone homesick yet? ;-)

One Tired Momma

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 07:11:00 +0000

Saturday, the 12th, the kids had been invited to 2 birthday parties. So we went, well, I went and took the kids, Tim was sick.....hmmmm....... ;-)

The first party was at Glow-Putt, which is a mini-golfing place where you golf in the dark with black lights.
I was excited to use the opportunity to practice getting good photos in different circumstances. I thought I had quite a few great photos, but when I got home, only a handful were pretty good. But here they are, I had fun figuring out what works and what doesn't.

The bday girl

Cousin Launa & her baby

I like this shot, even though her face might be too dark.

Giddy wanted to pose for the camera...you'll see what I mean in a sec...

Bday girls' brother...

More posing....

What a cute kid! (I can say that, even if he's mine)

The second birthday part was at Gymnastics Inc. I was pretty worn out from chasing kids at the first party though, so I didn't get any pictures, except these 3:

G-man in a princess hat, this one's for his first prom date...

Also, the other night the northern lights were out, finally. But I only got one blurry photo, then, while I changed my settings, they disappeared before I could try again.....

Not bad for a first try.

The following week from that birthday Saturday was spring break, so we decided to drive to Anchorage for a few days, just the hubby, baby and I. Grandma was awesome and took the older two.
I was excited to play with my camera on the trip, so here are my shots from that.

Beautiful, clear skies all the way down to Anchortown.

This is with a funky extension on my telephoto lens, it blurs the edges...

Airplane designs in the sky.

It dumped 6 inches of snow the next day, so the sun was masked by clouds and rather cool looking.

See the star on the mountain?

Ghost town of Denali

I can see the man on the moon! (The moon has been really close and huge lately!)

And lastly, I have been playing around with natural lighting in my house, trying to find my "pocket" of light (See Momtographers to see what I'm talking about...)
Plus I can't help taking lots and lots of pics with my camera lately, not to mention I already wish I'd taken more photos of the kids when they were littler, so time to start now!

I love her stripes!

Very expressive face!

I think that's all for now. I don't mean to bunch it all together like this, but honestly, who has time to blog all the time? ;-)

Food & goggles

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 06:10:00 +0000

Today was Baby H's first time eating baby food!!

It wasn't the first time that we've tried to feed it to her, but it was the first time she had been screaming because she was hungry for it, and the first time she loved the food.

Baby bananas...yum!

We've also been taking the kids swimming. I take the girl one night a week and the hubby takes the boy one night a week.
Well, the boy got brave and went under water, so we told him we'd buy him swimming goggles (and then we bought the girl a pair too...)

And then they wore the goggles everywhere for days on end. :-)

New Address

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 00:45:00 +0000

So.....I changed the web address. I was hoping after I changed it that I would be able to forward from the old address to this one....but I can't figure it out....So those of you getting this by email.....sorry, you'll need to bookmark the page again with the new address. The rest of you, I will probably have to contact one by one and let you know what I did. I'm brilliant like that... :-)

New Address: http://www.stephascope.blogspot.com

LMM Giveaway!

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 04:47:00 +0000

I love blog giveaways! And it doesn't hurt to get extra entries in the giveaway for sharing about it! (I'd love them even more if I won one someday ;-)

It'd be cool, to be cool enough to do my own giveaways someday, but for now, check out this giveaway at Little Miss Momma's blog. The giveaway is actually for a $40 certificate to the etsy shop Lee La La. She handcrafts cute accessories for women & babies. Go take a look!

http://littlemissmomma.blogspot.com/2011/03/some-fads-never-die-giveaway-discount.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FvlrRO+%28Little+Miss+Momma%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

(I may be having a problem with the links today, but at least you can copy and paste, and still check it out!)

In other news:

Baby H is a proficient roller now! Last week she perfected rolling from her back to her tummy. Then just a few days later she perfected rolling from her back to her tummy and then her tummy to her back! Isn't she so cute?! (The pics are tinted because I had a filter on the lens)

Ready?

Ta daa!!

Web address change

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 08:12:00 +0000

I am thinking I need to change the web address to this blog. It's hard to stay anonymous when your last name is in the address......

I was posting a photo and putting my blog address under it, and realized it didn't matter that I withheld my last name from the post when it was right there in the address.

So.......if I change it, does anyone know how that affects the blogroll? Would everyone have to know the new address ahead of time? I don't want to completely lose everyone!

In other news:

The hubby received a new calling this week. They took him away from me in primary for it too, but I'll be alright.....sniff-sniff...........:-(

;-)

Say hello to the new ward mission leader! Good luck babe! I think this calling will keep you busy for sure!!

He said he had this calling in singles' ward. I told him that doesn't count, EVERYONE'S a missionary in singles' ward.....ya know......"flirt to convert"?

So this time, he has to do the work for real! lol

Some random pics for ya:

Peek-a-boo!

Blog design

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:43:00 +0000

Look what I did!!!!!

I finally figured out how to custom make a blog header!!!

Obviously, you can't see this if you're getting the email, and obviously we're still playing with blog names, but isn't it cool?!

I'm easily excited.....

I came up with the name, the hubby came up with the slogan, and voila!
(We'll try it for awhile anyway....:-)

What d'ya think?

Thanks-giving

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 06:55:00 +0000

I know it isn't really Thanksgiving, but I've decided that if I try to find things to be thankful for each day, maybe I won't be so cranky and impatient!

Today I'm thankful for clean laundry!

We're going on 3 years now of not having our own washer & dryer, and somedays it really gets to me. Especially with all the messes kids bring.

Add to that the messes a baby brings, and the messes that 2 sick kids and 1 sick husband can bring, and one day, you wake up and realize no one has clean anything!

So, you take your clothes to the world's worst machines, that the apartments have provided, only to have them come back with soap spots, yellowed whites, and wet (and double your $$ spent because they were wet the first time!).

On good days, I can fit a trip to my mom's house (5 miles away) into my schedule to use her machines, but that can be a pain in the winter. (Let's face it, making trips to anywhere to do your laundry in a Fairbanks winter, is a pain!) Add to that the stress of taking your 3 kids with you to a not totally kid-friendly place, with giant dogs that freak the kids out (2 mastiffs), and it's not an event I look forward to.

(I should get contest points for it actually, can we consider that an event? ;-)

(Mom, if you're reading this, sorry :-) I really love coming, just not bringing the kids)

But today, I was folding the laundry, that my husband was sweet enough to stay up 'til 1am washing last night, because we realized "no one had clean anything" (and by 'anything' we mean the important stuff, the kind of stuff you don't want to be without...especially at church...)

and I started to think, "ya know? I'm just grateful for clean laundry.
Despite all the pain the mundane task brings to my life, I'm so blessed to not have to take it to a stream somewhere! (Can you imagine an Alaskan stream?!)
It could be that bad, but it isn't!

(And clean laundry, no matter how soap-spotted, always smells better than dirty laundry!)

So, long, and drawn out, that's the story of what I'm thankful for today!

In other news, if you're receiving this through the Merkley family email, or the Illguth family email, I think I'm going to stop sending posts to these groups, as I really only want people who want to get these posts, to get them.
I just don't want to send unsolicited stuff to peeps.

But, if you want to stay in touch, BOOKMARK this page, and remember to come back occasionally! Or subscribe to receive emails from the blog automatically(at the top of the blog, you get to choose your receiving method, oooooh, aaahhhh)
Or start your own blogger login, then you can keep track of a lot of blogs if you want!

Sledding

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:23:00 +0000

We took the kids sledding the other day. I just wanted to share a couple pics from it. Averie didn't last long with the snow flying in our faces and all. She cracked me up crying and laughing at the same time. Poor funny girl....

This a setting I downloaded to the camera called "Twilight"

Playing with my telephoto while I waited in the car.

Cold kids

Hubby

Snow baby

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 07:59:00 +0000

So most of you know, we got over a foot of snow here overnight a day or two ago. It's unusual for Fairbanks. Yes, we get snow, but usually 3 to 4 feet is all we get all winter, so it's a very slow accumulation.

I actually had to dig my cars out!! The kids had to "cut" trails through it, as it was waist deep on them.....it was pretty funny I thought.

Tim was still sick, but recovering, so I got to do all the shoveling. I actually love to do it though, so don't get sad :-) Falling snow usually means warmer temperatures, so bring on the snow baby!! Alaska wouldn't be so bad if all we had to deal with was snow!

Here are some pics:

Oh yea, it was super windy too..

Gettin ready to shovel

Done!

Went to G'ma's, and they had dug tunnels, Gideon's standing in one.

Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Stephanie) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 01:39:00 +0000

So while Blogger lets you add pages to your blog, you can't post to them the way you can to your original page. The pages you add are just meant to be stand alone pages where the info needs no updating i.e. an About Me page. So I am trying to decide if I should just create new blogs for my hobbies.....any thoughts?